Once Upon A December
by LiveLaughLoveReadForever
Summary: Draco and Hermione share moment in the empty Great Hall one night. Set during HBP.


_Things my heart used to know_

_Things it years to remember_

_And a song someone sings_

_Once upon a December _

~ Once Upon A December, Anastasia

* * *

Draco Malfoy walked through the deserted castle. Everyone was asleep, tucked in their beds while sweet dreams floated around in their heads. He hated them. He hated their easy, carefree lives. He envied their ability to have sweet, perfect dreams while he was stuck with the never-ending nightmares about the deed he had been given. _The nightmares that didn't end after he woke up. _ As he walked around the castle, he noted how beautiful everything was. The tapestries, the winding staircases, even the pictures that were giving him dissapproving looks as he walked by were beautiful to him. He wasn't sure why he was being so sappy about Hogwarts so suddenly. But then again, he realized, he was more than likely not going to be there the next year.

He eventually found himself in the Great Hall. The tables had been poofed away to somewhere else so the house-elves could tidy up and clean the hall. He stared at the empty hall. It was weird to see it so empty. People were usually always there; eating, talking, studying. The Great Hall without tables reminded me him of the Yule Ball. He smiled as he remembered the dance. That had been such a simpler time. He imagined that the dance was going on and as he looked around the hall his mind project the light images of dancing figures. He could easily remember the laughter as the couples glided across the floor. The girls' flowing dresses were still just as bright as they had been the first time and most of the guys looked awkward compared to their graceful parnters. Just as he remembered, the girls were stunning in their dresses, but only one captured his attention. She was laughing as she gazed up at her partner. Draco's gaze was torn away from the image of the beautiful girl as another girl grabbed his arm and made him dance with her.

Malfoy couldn't help himself. He began dancing with the girl that had torn his attention away from the other dancing girl. He danced with the image of Pansy, though the image of Hermione kept distracting him. As he danced to the music that was lightly playing at the back of his mind, the thoughts of all the problems he was dealing with faded away into nothing. All he thought about was the sound of the music and moving his feet the right way.

"Malfoy?" a voice said. The new arriver, broke Draco out of his trance. The images dissapeared just as fast as they had appeared. He turned around to see none other than Hermione Granger looking at him with a bemused expression. He couldn't even imagine how strange he had looked, dancing with an invisible partner to no music.

"Oh. Granger," Draco said looking at the girl. She was wearing silk red and gold pajamas and staring at him with a new strange look on her face.

"What are you doing out so late?" Hermione asked with a raise of her eyebrows. Draco snorted- funny question coming from someone who was out just as late without a resonable excuse.

"I could ask you the same thing," replied the Slytherin prince. Hermione rolled her eyes at him, though she couldn't help the half-smile that appeared on her face.

"I couldn't sleep," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Draco felt a little relieved that she hadn't mentioned anything about how he was dancing by himself. "It reminds me of the ball too."

Spoke too soon.

"What?"

"The hall...without the tables it reminds me of the Yule Ball too," Hermione said with a smile. She thought back to the night. That night had been great at points and absolutely terrible at other points. With Hermione reliving her memories from that night, Draco's thoughts were dragged back to his problem. A longing to ask Hermione to dance with him appeared from within himself. At first he shook his head at the idea; she would never say yes to that! Why risk humiliation in front of the girl he'd liked since 3rd year? But as the idea persisted he told himself 'Eh, life will probably over with next year' and turned to the girl.

"Hermione," Draco said. Hermione looked up, shocked to hear her given name from the lips of her best friend's enemy. He was looking at her with a sad expression on his face. "I don't believe I got a dance with you at that ball. Why don't you repay me now?"

"Are you...are you asking me to dance with you?" Hermione said with a cautious smile. He nodded and Hermione stood up. He placed his hand inside of her's and put his hand on her waist. "Wait, isn't it terribly demeaning to be dancing with a mudblood?"

"Nope," Draco said as he lead her to the middle of the room. He began to dance without the music. Hermione had her free hand resting on his strong shoulder. As she began leading them in the dance, he wished that he had danced with her years ago at that beautiful ball. As they danced, a soft melody began playing in the back of Draco's mind. It was played at the ball, he recalled. His mother had used to sing it to him as a lullaby when he was younger and he had been shocked to hear the song of his childhood play over the dancing figures of the Yule Ball. Hermione seemed to know the song too and began humming it as well. Draco spun her around and back into his arms. Depsite the fact that she was wearing a nightgown instead of a long, flowing dress and her hair wasn't perfectly straight and in a perfect bun, Draco thought she looked a million times better than she did at the Yule Ball; and he thought she looked beautiful at the Yule Ball. As they danced, he could almost see the flowing dress.

They danced for what seemed like an eternity. The dance never seemed to end. Somewhere, in a different world, the dance is still going.

When they finally did stop, the sun was starting to rise and they knew that the house-elves would start setting up the tables. They were both out of breath by the time they finished.

"I suppose I should get going," Hermione said. They had talked while they had been dancing, Hermione had told him about her childhood and he had told her about the trouble he got himself into at Hogwarts.

"Yes," Draco said not meeting her eyes.

"See you around."

"Yes, see you around."

Hermione let go of both of his hands and made for the front doors of the Grand Hall. She had pushed them open and was half-way out of them when she heard Draco's voice.

"Thank you," he said. She turned towards him and he had a small, sad smile on his beautiful face.

"For what?" Hermione said with a return smile. Draco didn't reply and turned towards the large windows that had light pouring through them. Hermione stared at Draco a few moments later before she turned and exited the hall.

"For everything," he whispered when he knew that she couldn't hear him. He knew that soon they would be enemies once more and would probably be on opposing sides of a battle field before long, but this night would stay with him for the rest of his life.

That night was what got him through the battle. Still whenever he would glimpse her in the train station, he would be brought back to the beautiful night where his heart was beating and she took his mind off his task. He would be reminded of his love of her. If things were different, he would often think, You wouldn't be the one that got away.

And every night before his children would go to be he would softly sing them the song that held so many memories for him.

_And a song someone sings_

_Once upon a December_

* * *

_A/N_

_Well, I hope you guys liked this story. I absolutely love the song Once Upon A December and I actually love the TRUE story of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna and her family. It's just such a sad story... I want there to be movie about them. I'd watch it! I almost want to write one myself and just send it to a bunch of directors. I highly doubt they'd like it though. And I think an amazing writer should right her story as a movie. I don't even know what this has to do with the story I just posted..._

_Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this story. I _loved _writing it. I often don't write stories like this; where the couple DOESN'T work out, but I just had to write this one and get it out of my system. xD __So if you did like this story it would make my life if you just drop me a review telling me what you thought about it! (: _

_Ugh. I can't believe I didn't have those two kiss! I was going to, but then I just didn't feel like it work in the context of the story like a kiss should. *shrugs* Woops, I guess. You guys didn't think the story was bad because it lacked kissing, did you? :o (I'm slightly scared of that answer.)_

_If you read _Matchmakers_ and are sitting there yelling at me behind your computer screen, I have good news- I'll be updating the story soon. :D I've finally found my muse for that story again! :D_

_Again, thank you guys for reading this meager little one-shot! (: I really hope y'all enjoyed the story. _

_Until next time, lovely readers!_


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